Method and system for maintenance of an air-condition unit

ABSTRACT

It is provided a system for cleaning a blower and an air inlet filter of an air condition unit using condensed water. The system includes a reservoir for condensed water, a first sub-system for facilitating flowing pressurized liquid in a duct having spraying outlets, and a second sub-system for removal of sprayed liquid out of the air condition unit. The cleaning liquid includes condensed water and a cleaning additive. The air inlet filter may rotate on a pair of pulleys, and the filter is exposed to the sprayed liquid by rotating a pulley while spraying. The system includes barriers disposable in a separating position between the cleaned parts and other objects. The system also includes a manipulating handle or an electric motor, for placing the barrier. Electrical circuitry may automatically initiate cleaning the parts on turning-off the air condition unit. The system include a chamber for a cleaning additive and a mixing mechanism for mixing the cleaning additive with the condensed water. The sub-system for removal of sprayed liquid out of the air condition unit includes a drain tray, a used water chamber and a drain pipe.

CROSS REFERENCE TO OTHER PATENT APPLICATIONS

The present application claims the priority of provisional U.S. patentapplication No. 61/091,739 titled “METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR MAINTENANCE OFAN AIR-CONDITION UNIT” by the present inventor, filed Aug. 26, 2008.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The invention is in the field of air condition. In special the inventiondeals with the cleaning of a blower and an air inlet filter in adomestic air condition unit using condensed water.

2. Description of Related Art

The blower is a rotating fan having a plurality of small vans whichproduce directional airflow while being rotated. It pumps hot air fromthe room through an air inlet filter and a cooling radiator and directsthe cooled air through an air outlet aperture into the room. As dust anddirt accumulate inside the blower, the blower works at lower efficiency,and thus should be cleaned from time to time. However, blower cleaningis a technical task done by a professional technician rather than by theair condition unit owner.

It would be advantageous to provide a system and a method for automaticblower cleaning, so that blower cleaning may be done automatically orwith slight intervention of the owner as frequent as needed forcontinuous efficient operation, thus lengthening unit lifetime andsaving expensive professional maintenance.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is provided according to certain implementations of the invention, asystem for cleaning one or more parts of an air condition unit usingwater condensed by the air condition unit. The system includes areservoir for condensed water, a first sub-system for facilitatingflowing pressurized liquid in a duct having spraying outlets, and asecond sub-system for removal of sprayed liquid out of the air conditionunit. The liquid includes some collected condensed water. The cleanedparts are a blower, an air inlet filter, and/or a cooling radiator. Theair inlet filter may rotate on a pair of pulleys, and the filter isexposed to the sprayed liquid by rotating a pulley while spraying.

In some embodiments, the system includes barriers disposable in aseparating position between the cleaned parts and other objects. Thesystem also includes a means for changing position of the barrier,manipulating handle or an electric motor, for example. Electricalcircuitry may automatically initiate cleaning the parts on turning-offthe air condition unit.

The system may include a chamber for a cleaning additive and a mixingmechanism for mixing the cleaning additive with some of the collectedwater. The sub-system for removal of sprayed liquid out of the aircondition unit includes a drain tray, a used water chamber and a drainpipe. The system may include a connection to a local water system.

In some embodiments, the system includes a sub-system for collecting andimporting water condensed by the air-condition unit operating in awarming mode, to enable air humidification and cleaning in winter time.

It is provided according to certain implementations of the invention, amethod for cleaning parts of an air condition unit. The method includesfacilitating collection of condensed water, and spraying liquid whichincludes some collected condensed water on the parts. The cleaning maybe initiated automatically, triggered by turnings-off the air conditionunit. Then, barriers may be placed between the cleaned parts and otherobjects by manipulating a handle or turning-on an electric motor.

In some embodiments, the method includes the step of mixing at leastsome of the collected water with a cleaning additive, and the step ofremoving the sprayed liquid out of the air condition unit. The sprayedliquid removal may include the actions of facilitating collection of thesprayed liquid and providing an outlet for draining the sprayed liquidout of the air condition unit.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The subject matter regarded as the invention is particularly pointed outand distinctly claimed in the concluding portion of the specificationThe invention, however, both as to system organization and method ofoperation, together with features and advantages thereof, may best beunderstood by reference to the following detailed description when readwith the accompanied drawings in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates an air condition unit having a system for cleaning ablower using condensed water.

FIG. 2 illustrates an air condition unit having a system for cleaningthe blower and an air inlet filter.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of the condensed water in the air condition unit.

FIG. 4 is an exploded view of a centrifugal blower with axial air inletsand a longitudinal air outlet, having barrier for insulation duringcleaning.

FIG. 5 shows a drain pipe with a nozzle for cleaning.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart of a method for keeping parts of an air conditionunit clean from dust.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention will now be described in terms of specific exampleembodiments. It is to be understood that the invention is not limited tothe example embodiments disclosed. It should also be understood that notevery feature of the methods and systems handling the described systemis necessary to implement the invention as claimed in any particular oneof the appended claims. Various elements and features of device aredescribed to fully enable the invention. It should also be understoodthat throughout this disclosure, where a method is shown or described,the steps of the method may be performed in any order or simultaneously,unless it is clear from the context that one step depends on anotherbeing performed first.

Before explaining several embodiments of the invention in detail, it isto be understood that the invention is not limited in its application tothe details of construction and the arrangement of the components setforth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. Theinvention is capable of other embodiments or of being practiced orcarried out in various ways. Also, it is to be understood that thephraseology and terminology employed herein is for the purpose ofdescription and should not be regarded as limiting.

Unless otherwise defined, all technical and scientific terms used hereinhave the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill inthe art to which this invention belongs. The systems, methods, andexamples provided herein are illustrative only and not intended to belimiting.

In the description and claims of the present application, each of theverbs “comprise”, “include” and “have”, and conjugates thereof, are usedto indicate that the object or objects of the verb are not necessarily acomplete listing of members, components, elements or parts of thesubject or subjects of the verb.

Before referring to the present invention, FIGS. 1 and 2 are used todescribe the cooling operation of an exemplary air condition 3. Notethat a similar unit may be used for air dehumidification or drying.Evaporator coil or cooling radiator 13 is a part of a cooling cyclewhich includes also a condensing coil, expansion valve, and a compressor(not shown). Note that both the condensing coil and the evaporator coil13 are heat exchangers, configured for allowing a substance in theinternal side to exchange heat with the environment in the externalside. This cycle takes advantage of the way phase changes work, wherelatent heat is absorbed at a constant temperature during a liquid to gasphase change. An electric motor is used to drive a compressor. Sinceevaporation occurs when heat is absorbed, and condensation occurs whenheat is release, air conditioners use a compressor to cause pressurechanges between an evaporator coil and a condenser coil, condensing andpumping a refrigerant around. A refrigerant is pumped into theevaporator coil, where the low pressure causes the refrigerant toevaporate into a vapor, taking heat with it. In the condenser coil, therefrigerant vapor is compressed and forced through the condensing coil,condensing into a liquid, rejecting the heat previously absorbed fromthe cooled space. As blower 11 rotates, it pumps air from the roomthrough air inlet filter 16 and coil evaporator 13 and throws cooled airback to the room through air outlet 18.

Despite air filtering in inlet filter 16, dust and dirt are accumulatedin vans 35 of 30 blower 11. Also, dust accumulates on inlet filter 16,mainly on its external side, but some dust may also stick to theinternal side. The accumulated dust blocks air flow to some extent, andcauses a decrease in the efficiency of air condition unit 3. In theprior art, cleaning the blower 11 and/or air filter 16 of the dirt anddust is done manually from time to time. While cleaning flat air filtersmay be done by an owner two to four times a year, cleaning the blower isdone by technician only, and therefore it is done much less frequently,allowing the efficiency of unit 3 to deteriorate in between.

The air entering the interior part of the air condition unit 3 from theroom is relatively humid, and as it flows over evaporator coil 13, watervapor condenses and falls down into a drain tray 12. In the prior art, adrain pipe is connected to drain tray 12, leading the condensed wateroutside the building or to a building sewage system.

Referring now to the disclosed cleaning system, the condensed water flowin entirely different channels. During normal operation of air conditionunit 3, condensed water falls down to a drain tray 12, and is funneledthrough funnel 30 into reservoir 1, where the condensed water is keptuntil being used for cleaning. Once reservoir 1 becomes full, water flowout through one-way aperture 20 to chamber 2.

The cleaning of blower 11 may be initiated once the air condition isturned off. The initiation is done by an electrical circuitry 47 eithermanually by pressing an appropriate button, or automatically onturning-off air-condition unit 3. Rather than being initiatedautomatically every turning-off, the cleaning system is initiated oncein a while, once in a week, once in a month, or each tenth turning off,for example.

On initializing the cleaning system, a barrier 8 is displaced from arest location, shown in FIG. 1, to a separating position between blower11 and air outlet 18, as shown in FIG. 2. Barrier 8 is displaced eithermanually using a manipulating handle 45 or electrically by pressing abutton for operating an electric motor 7, or as part of the automaticcleaning initiation. Pump 5 pumps the collected water from reservoir 1,mixes the pumped water with a cleaning additive kept in chamber 10 toget cleaning liquid, and enforces the liquid into duct 4 residing aboveblower 11. Duct 4 has a plurality of nozzles or sprinklers 6, whichspray the liquid into the interior part of unit 3. Blower 11 is set intoa slow rotation motion, allowing the sprayed liquid to wash blower 11all around. The sprayed liquid, carrying the dust and dirt with it, iscollected through slot 40 into rinsing water chamber 2. From chamber 2the rinsing liquid flows through drain pipe 14 to outlet 9 out of thebuilding or to the building sewage system. For the sake of clarity, thewater/liquid flow is reproduced in FIG. 3.

Referring now to FIG. 2, air inlet filter 16 is disposed aroundevaporator coil 13, and pulleys 17 a and 17 b. The cleaning liquid issprayed on air inlet filter 16 and on evaporator coil 13 while filter 16is rotated by pulley 17 b, which is driven by motor 15. After severalrotations, filter 16 is clean, and has to be dried. For that sake, thecleaning system includes a plate 19, shown in FIG. 1 at rest positionnormal to ground. In the rest position, plate 19 does not block thespace between blower 11 and filter 16. For drying, a motor 21 rotatesplate 19 from the normal position to an horizontal position, shown inFIG. 2. In horizontal position, plate 19 does block the space betweenblower 11 and filter 16. Therefore, once blower 11 is applied, it pumpsair flow in through the upper part of filter 16 and throws air outthrough the lower part of filter 16, thus drying filter 16 of thecleaning liquid.

Regarding liquid flow, the rinsing liquid of the cooling radiator 13 andair inlet filter 16 fall down to the drain tray. To prevent their flowinto condensing water reservoir 1, a drain pipe 48 connects the draintray 12 with rinsing water chamber 2. While cleaning, drain pipe 30which leads to reservoir 1 is closed and drain pipe 48 is open such thatthe rinsing liquid flows to the chamber 2 and out.

In mild cold weather, above water freezing temperature, air conditionunits 3 are used for warming the interior of buildings. For that sake,the cooling cycle works in a reversed mode, warming the air inside thebuilding, while cooling the air outside the building, and letting waterto condense outside the building. In other words, the two heat exchangerreplace rules, and radiator 13 functions as a warming heat exchanger.For the warming mode of operation, the system may include a sub-systemfor collecting water condensed outside the building in a warming modeand importing it to the internal section of the air condition unit toenable cleaning as described above.

Also, in addition to warming, the air condition warming operation driesroom air down to an inconveniently low humidity level. Thus, rather thancleaning, the same water flow system may use the condensed water,without mixing them with cleaning additive, in order to increase airhumidity up to a convenient level.

Referring now to FIG. 4, a centrifugal blower 70 is shown with two sideair filters, such that air flows 74 enter the blower axially, and airflows 76 get out of blower 70 longitudinally. Two side barriers 80 andlongitudinal barrier 8 are used to separate blower 70 from other objectswhile it is being washed by sprayed water from sprinklers 6 which arelocated in a duct 4 within the case of blower 70. Electrical motors 7and 82, respectively, are used to place barriers 80 and 8. By displacingbarrier 8 after cleaning, rinsed water flow to rinsed water chamber 2.

Dirt may be accumulated in pipes 14, 30 and 48, and should be removedfrom time to time. For that sake, nozzles 54 may be placed close to thepipe aperture, as shown in FIG. 5 for pipe 30. Nozzle 54 is connected towater reservoir 1 through duct 52 and pump 5. To clean pipe 30,condensed water is pumped into nozzle 54, which in turn emits a jet ofwater and removes the dirt from pipe 30. A special mechanism may bringnozzle 54 closer to the aperture of pipe 30 to prevent a decrease of thepressure in the emitted jet.

It is provided according to certain implementations of the invention, amethod 200 for cleaning parts 11 and 16 of an air condition unit 3, asillustrated in the flow chart of FIG. 6. Method 200 includes step 210 offacilitating collection of condensed water, and step 260 of sprayingliquid which includes some collected condensed water on parts 11 and 16.Method 200 may include step 220 of automatically initiating thecleaning, triggered by turnings-off the air condition unit, and step 230of placing barriers between the cleaned parts and other objects bymanipulating a handle 45 or turning-on an electric motor 7.

In some embodiments, method 200 includes step 240 of mixing at leastsome of the collected water with a cleaning additive, step 250 ofpumping liquid into duct 4, and step 270 of removing the sprayed liquidout of the air condition unit. The sprayed liquid removal may includethe actions of facilitating collection of the sprayed liquid andproviding an outlet 9 for draining the sprayed liquid out of the aircondition unit.

Although the invention has been described in conjunction with specificembodiments thereof, it is evident that many alternatives, modificationsand variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art.Accordingly, it is intended to embrace all such alternatives,modifications and variations that fall within the spirit and broad scopeof the appended claims. In particular, the present invention is notlimited in any way by the examples described.

1. A system for cleaning one or more parts of an air condition unitusing water condensed by the air condition, the system comprising: (a) areservoir for condensed water; (b) a first sub-system for facilitatingflowing pressurized liquid including at least some water of thecollected condensed water in a duct having one or more spraying outlets;(c) a second sub-system for removal of sprayed liquid out of the aircondition unit.
 2. The system of claim 1 wherein the system furtherincludes at least one barrier disposable in a separating positionbetween the one or more parts and one or more objects.
 3. The system ofclaim 2 wherein the system further includes a means for changingposition of said at least one barrier, said means is at least one ofmanipulating handle and an electric motor.
 4. The system of claim 2wherein the method further includes electrical circuitry for automaticinitiation of cleaning said one or more parts on turning-off the aircondition unit.
 5. The system of claim 1 wherein the system furtherincludes a chamber for a cleaning additive and a mixing mechanism formixing said cleaning additive with at least some of the collected water.6. The system of claim 1 wherein said second sub-system includes a draintray, a used water chamber and a drain pipe.
 7. The system of claim 1wherein said one or more parts of an air condition unit includes atleast one of a blower, an air inlet filter, and heat exchanger.
 8. Thesystem of claim 1 wherein the system further includes a connection to alocal water system.
 9. The system of claim 1 wherein the system includesa third sub-system for collecting and importing water condensed a by theair-condition unit operating in a warming mode, whereby said thirdsub-system is used for air humidification and cleaning.
 10. The systemof claim 1 wherein the air condition unit is a device used for at leastone of air cooling and air humidifying.
 11. A method for cleaning one ormore parts of an air condition unit, the method comprising: (a)facilitating collection of condensed water; and (b) spraying liquidincluding at least some water of the collected condensed water on saidone or more parts;
 12. The method of claim 11 wherein the method furtherincludes the step of placing at least one barrier between the one ormore parts and one or more objects.
 13. The method of claim 12 whereinsaid placing said at least one barrier is done by at least one ofmanipulating a handle and turning-on an electric motor.
 14. The methodof claim 12 wherein the method further includes the step ofautomatically initiating said steps of placing at least one barrier andspraying liquid, whereby turning-off the air condition unit initiatescleaning of said one or more parts, as needed to keep the air conditionunit highly efficient.
 15. The method of claim 11 wherein the methodfurther includes the step of mixing at least some of the collected waterwith a cleaning additive.
 16. The method of claim 11 wherein the methodfurther includes the step of removing the sprayed liquid out of the aircondition unit.
 17. The method of claim 16 wherein said removing thesprayed liquid out of the air condition unit includes the actions offacilitating collection of the sprayed liquid and providing an outletfor draining the sprayed liquid out of the air condition unit.
 18. Themethod of claim 11 wherein said one or more parts of an air conditionunit includes at least one of a blower, an inlet filter for air, and acooling radiator.
 19. The method of claim 11 wherein one of the cleanedparts is an air inlet filter rotatable on a pair of pulleys, and thefilter is exposed to the sprayed liquid by rotating at least one of thepulleys while spraying.